Program at Black Lake aids sturgeon recovery

CHEBOYGAN COUNTY - Spearing for sturgeon is a patient person's pursuit - a sport where people can spend hours, even years, hovering over an 8-foot-by-3-foot hole in the ice and never see a sturgeon.

Just ask Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Rebecca Humphries, who saw plenty of perch, walleye and even a tiger muskie, but no sturgeon, on the opening day of the limited winter lake sturgeon fishery on Black Lake in Cheboygan County.

"I was very surprised when I learned my name had been drawn in the lottery," Humphries said. "I grew up on a lake where we ice-fished all the time and I've speared a few northern pike, but I've never had the opportunity to spear a sturgeon."

Humphries waited patiently all day for the sturgeon that never appeared. Her shanty, which belongs to Brenda and Gil Archambo, who lead the Black Lake Chapter of Sturgeon for Tomorrow, was located in the middle of the 10,000-acre lake, where the water depth was about 25 feet.

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"I had a ball. It's like sitting in front of a large picture tube, watching everything that's going on beneath the surface," Humphries said. "The water was pretty clear. You could see where the sturgeon had been feeding on the bottom."

Since 1998, the DNR has put strict limits on sturgeon fishing. Lake St. Clair, Otsego Lake and Black Lake are the only lakes where sturgeon fishing is permitted. Black Lake is the only one where spearing is allowed.

Humphries said the Black Lake fishery continues a long-standing tradition of sturgeon spearing, but also is helping the DNR to implement its strategic management plan to rehabilitate lake sturgeon in Michigan.

At Black Lake this includes an innovative stocking program that takes young fish from the stream, rears them at the DNR's Wolf Lake fish hatchery and returns them to the Black River.

"Black Lake is a perfect model of how natural resource agencies across the country are working to restore populations while allowing sport take," Humphries said. "At the same time, we also are working with our universities to develop some cutting-edge research that may prove beneficial to how we carry out sturgeon rehabilitation in other areas of the state, such as our reintroduction program in the Ontonagon River."

Prior to European settlement of this region, the lake sturgeon was one of the most abundant fish species in the Great Lakes. Around 1830, when commercial fishing began on the lakes, fishermen considered sturgeon a trash fish and hated them because they tore up their gill nets.

Sometimes they would stack the sturgeon like cordwood and burn them in great pyres.

Later, these same fishermen learned to value the sturgeon for its flesh and eggs and harvested them by the ton. By 1880, it was estimated the total catch of sturgeon from Michigan waters of the Great Lakes was 4.3 million pounds. However, by 1900, only 140,000 pounds of sturgeon were taken.

Overharvest, dam construction on rivers used by spawning sturgeon and pollution all contributed to its near extinction. Although commercial harvest has been prohibited in Michigan since 1929 and recreational harvest is limited, lake sturgeon abundance has not increased appreciably since 1900.

Beginning in 1948, a limited sport fishery for sturgeon again was allowed on inland lakes open to spearing, and hook-and-line fishing in the Great Lakes and connecting waters was reopened in 1952.

However, concern for the survival of the fragile remaining numbers of sturgeon prompted the DNR Fisheries Division to propose a number of regulatory changes in 1998, including a statewide ban on spearing for sturgeon throughout Michigan. The greatest impact of this change was on Black Lake, where sturgeon spearing had been a tradition for many years.

Fisheries managers worked with members of the Black Lake Association to develop a cooperative program that includes a limited spear fishing opportunity in February, but is managed under a strict quota, which restricts seasonal harvest to only five fish. The first season was held in 2000.

This year's season began Feb. 5 and ended Feb. 10 when the season limit was reached. A daily lottery was conducted to give 25 anglers an opportunity to fish between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on the day they were eligible to fish. A 36-inch minimum size limit was in effect. This year there were 454 registered applicants.

Lake sturgeon biology is an important factor which limits their recovery. Lake sturgeon do not become sexually mature until age 20-25, and even when sexually mature they do not spawn every year as other fish species.

Another critical factor was the illegal harvest of spawning adults.

Since 1999, under the direction of DNR Law Enforcement Division personnel, hundreds of volunteers recruited by Sturgeon for Tomorrow annually donate more than 3,500 hours to patrol the river throughout the spawning season to protect sturgeon from poachers.